Background History On The Conflict

Venezuela vs. Colombia

Long before Nicolas Maduro came to power, the deceased political and military, Hugo Chávez ruled Venezuela for 14 years when the relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been unstable, between short approaches and frequent tensions that have not allowed a stable core of agreements to deal with border and binational problems.

Unstable relationships have always been there, but they have deepened over the past 15 years, when differences in political, economic and international orientation were added to the borderline problem.

Beginning when President Chávez reconsidered terms,

media, alliances, and diplomatic styles, he bet on the south, while Andrés Pastrana articulated anti-drug and anti-subversive struggles with the United States. Mutual fears led each government to paralyze meetings and neighbourhood bodies.

Then between 2003 and November 21, 2007 an intense rapprochement between Chávez and Uribe allowed to revive projects of border infrastructure, to speak about Interoceanic connection, to design possible solutions of the maritime dispute and to direct mutual winks Electoral. The approach lasted until Uribe first appointed and then disallowed Chávez as a facilitator of the release of abductees. From this period only the binational pipeline survived as an enduring project.

After that period, there came one of ruptures and threats, as Chávez cancelled diplomatic, commercial and binational relations; He threatened to mobilize troops, told the guerrillas part of the Bolivarian Project and recognized them as belligerents. Uribe accused him of expansionist and a friend of terrorism and signed an agreement with the United States for the use of Colombian military bases. The two presidents embrace at the Rio Group summit, in March 2008, failed to unlock the relationship, which was left with a minimum agenda.

If this situation continues, it can reach the point where the political allies of each country intervene causing a war of great proportions as we are talking about the world's greatest powers, Russia and the United States.

Such confrontation would have an impact on social political,

economic, etc, because a war paralyzes the production of a country because all interests are focused on winning the war, neglecting all these fronts and is when the country enters a depression, the People who have a chance to leave the country do so, seeking security that is needed in their country of origin; While people who do not have those possibilities are those who live the consequences of the conflict. Yet, countries such as the United States and Russia have been avoiding such a conflict for a long time, in addition to organizations like the UN intervening to prevent war as well.

And if our country does not have the support of the United States, an analysis has been made on the composition and training of the Colombian army, it is possible to think that this, by itself, is not able to maintain a war of more than 30 days. It is an army for guerrilla warfare, but not of depth or of long breath, since Colombia is currently not in a position to face such conflicts, our economy is not sufficiently prepared to withstand a massive arm production that this type of conflict generates.

By Susana Rengifo, Step 9.